All posts tagged: workshop

kawaii snacks.

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I took a kawaii snacks gouache workshop with Yay! It’s Vica! I love painting with gouache, but I’ve not been so great at including it as an everyday life activity. So I signed myself up for a gouache workshop to get some designated gouache time on the calendar. And I convinced my God-sister to join, too, so we could spend some creative fun times together. Vica, designer of some of the cutest illustrations ever, walked us through gouache techniques and step-by-step tutorials of how to create her style of kawaii snacks. This was a nice review of gouache but I also wish we spent more time painting snacks because, OMG, look how cute! I felt so successful at this workshop because my paintings resembled Vica’s samples. We learned how to paint different bread snacks with animal features like toast cat and burger bear. Something new to me was the addition of colored pencil – in brown! I’m obsessed! What cute snacks should I attempt next? Share below. You can paint cute snacks, too! Supply list*: …

garden wreaths.

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I designed a special wreath project for the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek and it launches on Saturday! I taught my felt succulent garden class as a pre-recorded, self-paced workshop with the Garden back in May and the Program Coordinator Alice loved the idea of hosting a wreath workshop with both succulents and florals inspired by the flowers that bloom in the garden. Since in-person events are still on hiatus, we planned for this second class to be a pre-record, self-paced workshop, too. The wreaths feature a variety of generic succulents plus two flowers inspired by Eriocephalus africanus (white with black center) and Baileya multiradiata (yellow). I prepared kits with a 10-inch grapevine wreath, felt in a succulent palette and floral colors, templates, and step by step instructions. Plus, a video tutorial! If we were to hold the class in person we would have set up in the event center patio. But crafting in the comfort of your home in pajamas is also fun! I loved creating this special project for the Garden! PS …

quilting 101.

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Throoowbaaaack. Back in the winter time, my coworker Holly, quilter extraordinaire, hosted weekly quilting-at-lunch lessons at work for our friend Sahskkia and me. I never thought I’d have the patience to make a quilt, but I did it! Well, almost… In our first session, Holly reviewed quilting basics and showed us all the tools of the trade as well as some of her current projects. Beautiful! Holly picked an easy starter quilt pattern for us to try that would help us with our “piecework” or putting the quilt pieces together. Precision is key! Here’s the fabric I decided on using. From top to bottom: leftover fabric from wedding crafts, fabric from Holly x2, and more leftover wedding craft fabric that I had indigo dyed. Our next few sessions were spent perfecting our fabric cutting, and getting all of the pieces ready for sewing. And using this adorable travel iron! Then piecing, cutting up the pieced strips, and piecing them back together in a pattern. More sewing and pressing and piecing… …and sewing and pressing and …

flower power.

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Yay! Flower crown workshop fun at Mischief! Even shop dog Toto was in on the fun! I had three lovelies in class today. We shared favorite flower stories and created beautiful felt blooms together. Tahdah! Gill D’s art was the perfect backdrop for this photoshoot. Thank you to Mischief for hosting and congratulations to this new class of felt floral gardeners. Can’t wait for my next workshop in the shop!

bookbinding.

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I received a freebie ticket to a Paper Source workshop (Thanks, Craftcation!) so I took a bookbinding class. There were only two of us in class ~ semi-private class for the win! We were quick to finish too, so our instructor shared some bonus fun things we could add to our notebooks. Paper Source provided all of the materials and tools, plus a handy “book sewing” guide. I chose different papers for my front and back covers, and copper sparkle cord to bind my project. The most time consuming part was punching the sheets of paper for the notebook. Someone create a five-hole punch with 1/8 inch holes, please! We used binder clips to hold the stack of paper together while we added bookbinding tape to the corners. Then we glued on the front and back fancy papers using a liquid glue. Next time, I’ll try using glue stick – maybe it’ll dry faster. Then, bookbinding! Using the sewing needles made the process easy. We finished our projects in under an hour, so our instructor …

felt marathon.

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Earlier this week I hung out at Rare Bird for back to back felt workshops. First, I debuted a new project: felt flower wall hangings. I’ll be teaching this class at Craftcation 2019, too! And then I was back for another College Prep Intraterm session with my felt succulent gardens project. I taught this class last year and was excited to hear that they wanted me to teach for a second time! As always, my students are amazing and I love to see what everyone creates in class! Everyone’s project turns out completely unique to their style. Look out world, we have a new cohort of felt gardeners! And now it’s time for a shameless plug: Learn to create felt blooms and succulents with me at one of my future workshops. Check my schedule on http://www.feedthefishco.com. You can also request a workshop for your private event!

did you get the memo?

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I taught another felt succulent workshop at Rare Bird, but this time we designed memo boards. I had leftover wire pieces from some shelving and was thinking about how I could use them for an art project. And then it dawned on me – put a felt succulent on it! And a memo board workshop was born. It had been a few months since my last workshop at Rare Bird, and since then, they’ve consolidated their space. It’s half as big as before but still packed with lots of creative magic. My set up for class — For my succulent workshops I usually bring a set color palette, but this time I brought a rainbow of felt and let workshop goers pick their favorite colors. It’s so fun to watch people create and see them get excited when they complete a project. I had three people sign up for memo boards, but we had a no-show, so I ended up teaching a private class to a mom and daughter duo. They created such beautiful work. …

them youngins.

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Earlier this week I got to teach my felt succulent garden workshop to a group of high school students as part of their intraterm program. What a fun group of youngins and a fun week filled with self reflection and art exploration. I normally teach adult workshops; it was fun to hang out with the high school crowd (and realize how long it’s been since high school…). Not once did I hear a “I can’t do this” or “I’m not creative” which is what I sometimes hear from grown up groups. A huge reminder to just be in the moment and not fear a mess up or something not looking like what you think it should look like. Though they were quiet, they were sooo into what they were doing, playing with different designs, manipulating the materials, and creating some awesome pieces of work. Such a creative group! I wanted to share their process and projects because I was super proud of their work! Thank you to Rare Bird for inviting me to teach and to the …

case for making.

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I learned how to make my own watercolors! Talk about taking my crafty skills to the next level. When I discovered Pinta PH I became interested in learning about making watercolors by hand. Then, I discovered Case for Making – and handmade watercolors is what they are all about! I quickly signed up for one of their watercolor making workshops. When I arrived to class these beautiful pigments were all lined up on the workshop table. AHH, I couldn’t wait to get started. Our instructor (and shop owner) Alexis shared her watercolor making wisdom and demoed one of the colors – fluorescent magenta! The watercolor base is a propriety mix of distilled water, gum arabic, and honey. You gradually add the base to the pigment and mix and smash until you get the right consistency. For the fluorescent pigments we also used a few drops of rubbing alcohol to get the pigment to mix well with the base. We each got to make two colors for the entire class. Each pigment behaves differently so it was …

make your mantra.

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Hey, be you tiful! An evening at Paper Source for their Make Your Mantra mini workshop! Lucky me, I was the only one who signed up for the mini workshop so I got a private lesson! The project for the evening was to paint and decorate a plant print and to include a personal mantra. Teacher example above –très cool. What’s fun about Paper Source workshops is that you get to try out supplies and materials before committing to buy them. I got to play with watercolors (including metallic watercolors!), an aqua brush, Prima Press letters, a heat embosser, and a watercolor resist pen. Paper Source preprinted images of plants. I chose this lil guy – so trendy. I absolutely loved the metallic watercolors. I didn’t know they existed before this workshop. Look at the shimmer…. I ended up getting the palette after class. Here’s my instructor Erik demoing all the tools and supplies, and getting crafty. The watercolor resist pen is pretty fun to use, too. It’s basically like removable glue blobs. You can …